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Violent Histories and Political Consciousness Reflections On Nepal's Maoist Movement From Piskar Village
Violent Histories and Political Consciousness Reflections On Nepal's Maoist Movement From Piskar Village
1-1-2003
Recommended Citation
Shneiderman, Sara (2003) "Violent Histories and Political Consciousness: Reflections on Nepal's Maoist Movement from Piskar
Village," Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies: Vol. 23: No. 1, Article 9.
Available at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol23/iss1/9
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VIOLENT HISTORIES AND POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS:
REFLECTIONS ON NEPAL'S MAOIST MOVEMENT FROM
PISKAR VlllAGE'
rhls P'lJh'l L(llhldns thL' links between the Manist nHwement and past histnrles of political vinlence
In Ilil ,d Nep,d le"plnIT linw a 19tH pnlice massacre of villagers in Piskar, Sinclhllpalcok, fostered
I(lLal pnllllL'al cnnsci'llisness, which later became essemial tothe Manist movement's abihty to moti-
vate partil'ipants .It the gr<lssr<Jnts level MllSt nbservers of the e<ldy phases nf the Maoist movement
In NepallleatL'lI Il ellhn as an.lncnlllprehensI!Jle, annmalous rupture in a generally peaceful pnliti-
Lal held, nr as a case llf pnlitical party splits gone awry. I argue Instead that the Maoist insurrectIOn
IS ckeply embedded iJl Nep,d's violent history of state formation and is a contemporary manilesta-
linn ,)Ithe Inng-term Interplay between polittcs and consciousness created hy that hisllJry. In order
tll undersl'lIld the n1l1Velllent's tenacity, particularly in an ostensibly post-Cnlllmunist world order,
we IllUSI address Ihl' qUl'stinn of motivation on i1ll' part of Ihosl' who have forml'cI its rank ancl file,
,md L'X,lInlnl' thl' 11IstoriL'al cnndillnns that presagl'd their participation In nrder to do this, I clraw
upnJl the thenril's nl AnwnlO (;ramsci to cnnsicler Nl'pal's CUITl'nt situation a "crisis of hl'gcmony",
'b well as lIpnn ethnngrapilic and histnricalmaterlal I'Will my L1IVnresearch in the Piskar area.
III Cl'C1y coulltry the process is diJfuellt, although the wlltent is the same. Alld the COlllflll
is Ihe (lisis o/the rlllilig rlass's hegemoll.\', which occllrs either heUlllsc the rlliing class has
jailcd in SOllie lI1(/jor polilicalllllder/ahilig ... or !>crallse hllge lIIasses ... havc passed sud-
dellly)rolll a state oj polit iul1 passivity to a (('rlaill activity, alld Pllt forward delllands which
ta!lell together, al!>eit not organically forlllulated, add up to a revolut ion, A '(lisis of author-
ity' is spohol of: this is precisdy Ihe aisis 0/ hegelllony, or crisis of Ihe state as a whole,
-,Antl)!lll) ,;raIllSL'1 (as citeclln Fnrg'les 2t)(ll) 218)
1\ ))'11\\1,1'1 II I{. 2001. Nepal year zero in rhe Sunday Review of the butions to this paper. Thanks are also due to John Metz, Barhara
IUlil'pl'lldl'lll, 12 .-\ugust 20lll. 17-19. Brower, and the other participants of the pre-conference 'War on
Terrorism, War as Terrorism' held at the 31st Madison South Asian
1'1{\Ill!\'-, I, rhe Corkha cOIHluests. Calcutta: OxfordLJniversity
Conference in October 2002. Finally, I thank the people of Piskar
Press, Il)l) I
and the larger Thangmi community in Sindhupalcok and Dolakha.
lill,\II, 1'.·1\111'II (II \i\IlIU. 1l)7Sa. Land tenurl' and laxation in
2 By 'early phases' I refer to the period before the November 2001
Nepal. K'lllllnandu: Ratna I'ustak Bhandar.
imposition of a State of Emergency hy the Nepali government. Re-
Iii (,\11, 1'.1\111'II (II \'-Illn. 1l)7Sh. Thalched huts and stucco search for this paper was conducted hefore that date. Conditions
palalT' peas'lilts and landlords in 19th century Nepal. Delhi: in Nepal have evolved extensively since that time, so I use the past
Vikas I'uhlishing Ilou,e. tense to descrihe the ethnographic situation as I encountered it
between Novemher 1998 and September 2001. In that sense, this
Rl\U, 11.\1<1. 2llt) I I he Maoi,1s and the Nepalese Left. Paper
article is a period piece, and I have not attempted to update it to
pll"l'uted at the "l'lIllnM on the Maoist Movement at SOAS,
reflect the emerging situation of mid 2004. The assertions I make in
l.ondon, Novemher 21llJI.
this paper are therefore as accurate as possible for the stated period.
III S\II" ,\'-i\1 . 211lllJ. The Khalil Magar country, Nepal: Between However, I make no claim that attitudes among the academic com-
ethnic claims and Maoism. The European hulletin of Himalayan munity, in Piskar, or elsewhere in Nepal remain the same at the time
ll''>earch Il): -+1-71 of publication.
Sl (l/ I, J \\11' Il)S5. Weapons of the weak: everyday forms of 3 To date there is only a smattering of published academic articles
pea,ant resistance Nnv lIaven: Yale University Press. related to the subJect (Nickson 1992; de Sales 2000; Gautam et al.
"11\1'\1\, [\,1 \'-llIIU\'-I) DI ,,< "I I PIC"IIN. 20lH.Cender dimensions 20(1) Several new volumes that appeared in 2003 begin to fill this
oj the peopil''s war' some rclleetions on the experiences of rural gap (see Gellner 2003; Hutt 2004; Karki and Seddon 2003; Thapa
\\(lInen .. Iii malayan People's War: Nepal's Maoist rehellion, edited 2003b, 2003c)
hy Michaeiliuti. london: Christopher Hurst and Co. 152-165. 4 In taking this approach, I offer a respectful nod towards RanaJit
Cuha's seminal work on peasant insurgency in colonial India 0999
[19831) Although Nepal's Maoist movement must be considered on 23 Thapa (2001: 9)
its own terms, we would do well to consider the structural simi-
24 There is an extensive existing literature on social inequality
larities between the colonial Indian peasant insurgencies Guha de-
in Nepal which provides a greater time-depth and regil1l1al breadt h
scnbes and the current situation in Nepal. Guha's category of 'rebel
to the historical narrative presented here A thorough discussil1l1
consciousness' is particularly relevant, and the larger question beg-
uf these sources is beyond the scope of the current paper h)j' ,111
ging attention is why such potentially useful work emanating from
account of the structural hierarchies of the caste system see Hlller
the Subaltern Studies School in general has not yet been adequately
(1979); for an overview of the military conquests that led to con-
incorporated into contemporary work on Nepal. [ed: Though see
temporary settlement patterns see Pradhan (\991) and Stiller; ,1nd
Richard Bownas' paper in this volume]
lor analyses uf land-based class structures see Caplan (1970) and
5 Buci-Gluckmann (1980:95) Regmi (\ 978a, 1978b)
6 cr. Fardon (1990) 25 Niko Pragatisil Thami Samaj [hereafter NPTS! (2054); Thami
7 cr. Pfaff-Czarnecka (2004) Bhasa Tatha Sanskriti Utthan Kendra [hereafter TBTSUKj (2056)
II See Shneiderman and Turin (2004) for a detailed account of 29 Amnesty Internat iona] (1987); INSEC (\ 985)
this moment in local history. .10 Amnesty International (1987: IS)
12 cf. Pie ke (1995) JI TBTSUK (2056: (5). All translations from Nepali arc mine, and
13cr. Hacchethu (2003); onta (2003); Roka (200l); Thapa (2003a; I bear responsibility for any errurs
2003c) J2 Cammett (1967 199)
14 Gautam, Banskota and Manchanda's discussion of women's J3 A ropani is a standard Nepali measurement equivalent to 5476
agency within the Maoist movement is a notable exception (2001) square feet.
Substantial new work focusing on the question of agency is appear-
34 ICDM (1999)
ing just as this article goes to press. In particular see Pettigrew's
analysis of youth participation in the movement (20mb) and Shar- 35 Kurtz (1996 108)
ma and Prasain's overview of women's participation (2003). 36 NPTS (1997 (8)
15 de Sales (2000: 4l)
J7 Anonymous villager's account, as cited in Shneidcrman and
16 Moynihan (2002 A2l) Turin (20tH)
already begun to happen, but I do not yet lla\'C detailed data to sup-
19 Pettigrew (2003a) [ed and in this volume]
port this proposition.
20 Luitel (2003)
45 Scott (\ 985 302)
21 Popham (200l); Anonymous (2001)